Sports of The Times; On Ali, L.T., Air Jordan, Santa et al.

OUTTAKES by definition don't fit in. Doesn't mean they aren't relevant (doesn't mean they are, either). Just suggests that for various reasons they didn't make the cut in a particular scenario. Following are some outtakes from one man's notebook during 1992:

THE BUM -- At the beginning of this National Football League season, if someone told you that the Giants would lose for much of the season their two most important players on offense -- the quarterbacks, Jeff Hostetler and Phil Simms -- and their most important player on defense -- Lawrence Taylor -- and that their top punter and field-goal kickers would go down, and that the team in a highly competitive league would simply grow older and lose a step, would you then, before a snap had been made in league play, have said it would be the coach's fault if they had a poor year?

THE FATHER -- At the Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremonies last August in Cooperstown, Tom Seaver, in his moving remarks, thanked a number of people who were important in his life.

He made special mention of his father, Charles Seaver, and asked him to stand. Mr. Seaver, an elegant, gray-haired man in tie and tan sport jacket, turned and waved to the applauding audience and then turned back, bowed to his son and said quietly, "Thank you."

THE BOXER -- Marvin Hagler, the former middleweight champion, was talking about Muhammad Ali. "It's true he slurs his words," said Hagler, "but if you ever noticed, whenever he's talking to a pretty girl he always makes himself understood very clearly."

THE MAN IN THE CAPE -- Before the seventh and final Eastern Conference semifinal playoff game between the Knicks and the Bulls last May 17, Gerald Wilkins sat in front of his locker and said that the man he was to guard that afternoon, Michael Jordan, "was not Superman."

He thought he could do a job on the Bulls' star. Jordan scored 42 points and the Bulls won, 110-81. "Did you think he was Superman today?" Wilkins was asked afterward.

Wilkins held his ground. "No," he said. "He wasn't Superman. He didn't score 62 points. He was more like Superboy."

HOLIDAY SEASON -- In early December, the Rev. Al Sharpton held a news conference in front of the building where major league baseball has its offices on Park Avenue. He was upset about the racial and ethnic slurs attributed to Marge Schott, owner of the Cincinnati Reds.

Among other things, Schott said she kept a piece of "memorabilia," a Nazi swastika armband, in a drawer at home with her Christmas decorations. When asked his opinion of this, Sharpton said, "Hitler and Santa Claus on the same sled is extremely offensive to me."

NOBODY'S PERFECT -- Arthur Ashe, my Man of the Year, and a companion were in the Buffalo airport on the way back home to New York City when Ashe stopped to buy a box of popcorn ("I love popcorn," he said).

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Ashe had been in Buffalo speaking to a college audience about AIDS, which he contracted several years ago during a blood transfusion for a heart operation. Ashe ate the whole box of popcorn. He offered his companion none.

Ashe is a sensitive, thoughtful, generous man, and the companion surmised that Ashe was simply thinking that it might make the companion uneasy, and saved him embarrassment, even though both knew that doctors assure that the H.I.V. virus cannot be transmitted from saliva.

Later, the companion mentioned it to Ashe. "I didn't offer you any popcorn?" asked Ashe. "I'm sorry. I guess I was just rude."

DEPT. OF COACHING ACUMEN -- Red Holzman, the former Knicks championship coach, was observed getting the most out of a waiter in a restaurant that he frequents. "Tell me," said Holzman, amiably, "is your soup hot tonight?"

ANN LANDERS REVISITED -- Dave Gavitt, general manager of the Celtics, when asked how much the team misses the retired Larry Bird, replied: "What's the old saying, 'How many ways do I love you?' "

RIGHT-FOOTED -- Jim Abbott, the new Yankee pitcher, was born with a left hand and no right hand. Did he have any idea whether he was a natural left-hander?

"All I know about it is that I'm right-footed," he said. "I kick a football and soccer ball with my right foot."

But since he can throw a baseball 94 miles an hour with his left hand, it was suggested that if he was a natural right-hander he might have thrown a baseball at 150 miles an hour. "We'll never know," he said, with a smile.

As for 1993, nothing is certain, except that the Cowboys will win the Super Bowl, the Braves the World Series and Michael Jordan the N.B.A. championship.

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A version of this article appears in print on December 30, 1992, on Page B00007 of the National edition with the headline: Sports of The Times; On Ali, L.T., Air Jordan, Santa et al. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe